Frost Mage PvP Guide, Stay Frosty

This page is for Frost Mage PvP, see the links below for other Mage info.

Of the three mage specs Frost is the only one with a pet and that pet can add quite a bit to your damage and control. How is Frost doing at the moment? That depends more on you than anything else. This week Frost may “suck,” next week a hot fix will change all that and Frost will be the “go to” spec. So we’ll cover “How to Frost” here and leave the “flavor of the month” discussions for the forums.

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Ice Lance replaces Fire Blast and is now only available to Frost Mages. Ice Lance’s base damage has been increased by 100%, since you no longer have access to Fire Blast, but its damage multiplier against frozen targets has been reduced by 50% (it’s now 2x instead of 4x.)

Shatter is now available only to Frost Mages (My Fire Mage cries…) and it now multiplies Critical Strike chance by 1.5 (down from 2.)

Frost Armor is now a passive effect and is available only to Frost Mages. It will increase your Multistrike chance (8% MS instead of 7% Haste) and slows enemies who hit you in melee. You no longer have access to the other armors.

The Brain Freeze effect now increases Frostfire Bolt‘s damage by 25%, and can now stack up to 2 times. It also no longer triggers from the Bomb Talents, and instead has a 10% chance to trigger from Frostbolt casts. Each Multistrike of Frostbolt increases that cast’s chance by an additional 25%. (Total of 60% on double-Multistrikes).

Deep Freeze is now available only to Frost Mages, plus it can now be broken by damage (by the same amount as Frost Nova.)

Frost PvP Talents

Different talents will fit different situations, for example: if you’re on a team or solo. Fortunately talents are easily changed to fit the current situation. Click the new talent, spend one Tome of the Clear Mind, and you’re good.

Our picks are checked:

Tier 1, level 15

Evanesce – replaces your Ice Block. You get 3 seconds of immunity to everything, except that it does not clear debuffs already on you. DoTs already present will continue to deal damage, and Spells that have already been cast will still damage you. 45 second cooldown Vs Ice Block wiping everything that Evanesce does not. Your call.

Blazing Speed can be used as a short burst of speed every 25 seconds (saving a blink,) an escape from snares (saving a blink,) and a gap closer. If you’re playing against a team that throws enough snares then this is your pick. More mobility is generally a pretty good thing to have.

Ice Floes – Not so hot when compared to the others, especially given your number of instant spells.

Tier 2, level 30

Alter Time, now a talent and lasting ten seconds, was nerfed such that it no longer affects the Mage’s mana, buffs, or debuffs. It can be used to avoid damage, snares, etc by resettng the lest (up to) ten seconds. It can no longer be used to extend your DPS.

Flameglow is best used against opposition that will DOT you up, eg: Affliction ‘locks. That is, situations that provide constant damage, rather than large bursts.

Ice Barrier just blocks a chunk of damage, such as lots of little stuff or a big chunk of a big hit. It’s the pick here because it’s easier to use Alter Time and blocks more damage than Flameglow.

Tier 3, level 45

Ring of Frost – the old, the tested, the immensely useful in all kinds of places. Has a cast time and a 2 second “arming time.” Especially useful in the BGs. Works even better when you team has abilities like Gorefiend’s Grasp, which will pull all enemies into your ROF, just in time for your team to unload A of Es on their frozen selves.

Ice Ward – Melee gets in your face and gets frozen (Frost Nova,) allowing you to get away and/or set up for the kill. With 5.2 this does not share DR with your other freezes. Best choice for kiting melee, duels, etc. This could be a very interesting choice with Ice Nova, which replaces your Frost Nova. Up to three, free, Ice Novas…

Frostjaw – Single target ranged freeze and your only silence. Has its uses, especially when followed up with a shatter. Can be dispelled and Dwarves can Stoneform it.

Tier 4, level 60

Three good choice. Which one depends on your game.

Greater Invisbility – Nice for wiping away effects and escaping (repositioning.) Broken/blocked by various effects, such as Faerie Fire or too many DOTs. Can also be used to position yourself to set up for a Ring of Frost or whatever.

Cauterize – Nice if you anticipate occasional lethal damage. Most useful if you have a healer with you, though Ice Block will stop the DOT and Temporal Shield will heal it.

Cold Snap – Nice heal and resets important cooldowns, the latter making it the pick here. Usable while stunned, etc. Can be used if you are locked out of your Frost-tree to enable Ice Block.

Tier 5, level 75

Frost Bomb Is no longer actually a bomb. It has no cooldown, it does not explode, it does not trigger Brain Freeze. You place the bomb and then use your Fingers of Frost empowered Ice Lances to attack the target. Each Lance that hits does damage to the target and lesser damage to all other targets within ten yards. The bomb does no damage by itself and your other attacks do nothing. This talent seems much weaker than the other two.

Unstable Magic gives your Frost and Frostfire bolts a chance to explode on impact, doing 50% more damage to the target and also doing damage to all targets within 8 yards. It looks like you get all the joy of Frost Bomb with none of the fuss. Less damage than Ice Nova, but you get more casts over 25 seconds.

Ice Nova has two charges on a 25 second recharge. The main target takes 300% Spellpower damage and all targets within 8 yards are frozen for two seconds, giving you a nice Shatter chance with an immediate second Ice Nova (within that 2 second window.) Try to fire that off at the peak of your Incanter’s Flow. Replaces your Frost Nova.

Tier 6, level 90

Mirror Image, now a talent. Summon up some copies that start blasting away for you. Nice burst every two min.

Rune of Power – Nice except for the fact that you have to stand still, which in not what you want to be doing in PvP.

Incanter’s Flow – stays on until you turn if off or the enemy does. Average of a 12% buff at any given time. Cycles from a low of 4% to a high of 20% buff over 5 seconds, then another 5 to drop to 4%. Ten seconds from peak to peak. You can track the buff and fire your best shots at 20%.

Tier 7, level 100

Prismatic Crystal puts a crystal at the targeted location. Only you can attack it and it takes 130% damage from your attacks. Any time it takes damage it instantly releases that damage, splitting it evenly among all enemies within 8 yards. The only problem is that your enemies have to stay in one place for the duration. If you can place it right and dump your burst into it you can do some serious damage.

Comet Storm: Comets! Orbital Bombardment! 7 icy comets bombard the target area, each one doing damage to all enemies within 4 yards of the impact point. Easy to use, which is why it’s the pick. Damage is a bit weak, though.

Frost Abilities in Warlords of Draenor

These are the abilities that define you as Frost. You will be generating a fair number of “procs” as you fight (Fingers of Frost, Brain Freeze, and Icicles,) giving you a chance at some pretty major burst damage if you can unload all of them at the same time.

Some abilities that were general to Mages are now uniquely yours, such as Shatter and Ice Lance. You also get perks, instead of a new abilities, once you get past level 90.

** These abilities are either brand new for Warlords or have been restricted to one spec. For example, “Shatter” is now Frost only.Perks: Unlike previous expansions you will gain no new abilities past level 90. What you will gain, instead, are Perks. These are enhancements of current abilities. For example, one of your perks might provide a reduced cooldown time to some ability. So you get a better ability instead of a new one. All of the Perks are passive, so will add no new buttons to your bars.Also, the perks are learned randomly. You will eventually get four perks, starting at 92, but they will be learned in random order. At level 95 you may well have a different pair of perks than that other level 95 Mage. At level 99 you will have them all.

Pet Abilities

Your Water Elemental has:

Freeze – Root enemies in place and generate two Fingers of Frost charges (on enemies that can be rooted).

Water Jet – Channelled. Auto-cast by default. Use against enemies that cannot be rooted, such as raid bosses. Your Frostbolts that that hit the target, while it’s being watered, generate a Fingers of Frost charge.

Frost Stats for PvP

Warlords note: Hit, Expertise, Resilience, and Reforging are all dead. You have two new stats, Multistrike and Versatility. The former gives you a chance at one or two additional strikes (30% effect,) and is your “attuned” stat, which means that you get 5% more of it.

Haste provides for faster casting and shaves precious fractions off of cast times.

Multistrike takes a hit because in PvP you get one shot at an additional strike, in PvE you get two. (source) (checking the character pane in a PvP environment though, shows 1/2 your PvE Multistrike chance while in PvP, but two rolls. Either way, it’s nerfed 50 50% effect compared to PvE.)

Versatility adds to your damage, any heals you do (LOL,) and your damage reduction. Pretty much improves everything you do.

Crit – Your Shatter ability multiplies your crit chance against frozen targets by 1.5 and adds another 50%. With a 30% crit chance this means that you have a 95% chance for a Shatter crit. The crit cap for your Shatter is 33.33% (100% total chance.) You’re unlikely to see this number with anything short of end-game warlords gear. Also, Crit is 150% damage in PvP, not 200%.

Mastery generates Icicles as you cast other spells and it also increase your Elemental’s Waterbolt damage. More Mastery increases the power of the Icicles, not the chance to generate them, as well as more Pet damage. Most people consider Mastery to be the weakest of the secondary stats, the rest consider it to be essentially useless.

Frost Mage Gems

Warlords note – Gem sockets in Warlords are few and far between. There is a small chance for them to appear on raid gear, perhaps there will be some similar chance for them to appear on PvP gear. As of now there are no gem sockets on Warlords level PvP gear.

Offensive gems for pre-Warlords gear.

You should try to match Int socket bonuses (if any.) Gems with secondary stats (eg; Haste) have twice the value of primary stat gems (eg: Int) and socket bonuses are nice enough to make matching them worthwhile. “Perfect” gems have the same values as the regular gems, but one or the other will be much cheaper. Go with the cheap one.

Your Mage bonus adds to any Int gem bonuses, making them worth 5% more Int. That bonus does not add to other stats. This makes Int gems that much more valuable.

Meta: Tyrannical Primal Diamond when you can get it, otherwise Burning Primal Diamond. If you do World PvP then the legendary gems, in the table below, are very nice if you raid enough to get them (and do the quests.) They do not Proc in BGs or Arena, so are inferior to the Burning or Tyrranical gems there.

Gemming in Warlords, Assuming Gem Sockets Become Available

Gem sockets on PvE gear are few and far between, sockets on PvP gear are not yet actually available, but perhaps they will be as the expansion progresses. For the sockets that are available, there are no meta gems or meta sockets, there are no socket bonuses, and all sockets are “prismatic,” which means that they will take any available gem.

The gem themselves are actually available. They are all prismatic, meaning they fit into any socket. None have Int, they all have secondary stats (Mastery, etc.) Apparently there are no Meta sockets or gems.

Older (Mists of Pandaria) gems work until item level 600, but the item squish cut them down a bit. What used to be 160 Int is now 10, for example. The new Prismatic gems are 50 points of Mastery or whatever.

Older gems (Mists of Pandaria and lower) that used to code for Hit now do Crit, gems that had Expertise are now Haste.

If PvP sockets appear: Gem for Haste or Multistrike or Versatility, whichever you’re focusing on. Only gem for the one thing.

Frost Mage Enchants

Short on gold? If you want to buy the best enchants and gems, fund all of your alts, donate to the guild, etc., but don’t have the cash, then see what the Tycoon Addon can do about about fixing your poverty.

Helm enchants are gone in Mists of Pandaria, shoulder enchants are provided by the Inscription profession.

In Warlords your only enchants are for rings, neck items, cloaks, and weapons. They also, as with gems, only provide secondary stats. (Possibly this will change as things progress.) If things remain the same as Mists then you will be able to use these enchants on any lower level gear, where they will scale down appropriately.

Frost Mage PvP Gearing

See our Mage PvP Gear page for alot more detail, but the basics are below. You will want to get all PvP gear and the PvP trinket pair gives you an added 10% damage reduction (from players) as a set bonus.

See above for Gems and Enchants. Gem and enchant for offense. Also see the notes in those sections for Warlords gems and enchants.

If you are not yet 100 then gain honor to the cap, spend it, and have at least 3,500 Honor ready to go when you hit 100. That will let you get your weapons first, since that will likely be, by far, your best upgrade after questing.

At 91+ you can put on the crafted gear. These pieces are 630 for the weapons (from the Inscription profession) and 640 for the armor (from Tailoring.) You are limited to three of the crafted items, so we suggest the weapon and then chest and legs. Buying the items will require a nice chunk of gold, making them will require a lot of mats. Note that these items can be upgraded (costly) or have their stats shifted.

When you first hit 100 start working for the honor gear. There are actually three levels of gear in Warlords Season 1.

In place of PvP Power the PvP gear has two ratings, one for PvP and a lower rating for everything else. This should make the PvP gear much better than PvE gear for any PvP combat and probably weaker than PvE gear in raids.

For any given gear slot there are two pieces of gear available, so you can play with stats a bit. If you get the rep with the leader of your faction (Vol’jin shown in the image) then you get access to a third piece with other stats.

Gearing up:

If some of your gear is weak, compared to the rest of your gear than that is a priority upgrade. For example, those three green pieces that you hadn’t updated to blues or better.

The Gear, In Order of Acquisition:

Why this order? It will give you the best results and get you into the set bonuses ASAP. this order applies for both Honor and Conquest gear, though only the latter is shown. Also not that while the gear shown is for Horde, the Alliance uses the same item names.

Reforging is dead in Warlords. So are Hit, Expertise, and Resilience. Stacking stats will come from gear choices, enchants, and the few available gem slots.

The honor gear has no point or skill requirement to buy weapons. Your first 3,500 honor points should go towards your staff (or sword and off-hand.) Conquest gear, on the other hand, does require 7,250 points to be accumulated before you can buy the weapons.

Honor: Get the weapon(s) first.

Conquest: Your first 4k honor gets you a big piece (head, chest, or legs) and your gloves. That’s the two piece set bonus and the glove bonus (in season 15 that bonus reduced the Blink global cooldown by .5 seconds.) You could also get the “on use” trinket instead of the gloves, for the burst. (example: Primal Combatant’s Badge of Dominance)

Conquest: The next 3,500 is for your weapons

Honor: Get those two items mentioned above.

DPS trinket.

Take two from Chest, Legs, Head, or Shoulders, for the 4 piece bonus.

Finish out the “big” pieces.

Cloak, neck, and rings, because all three can be enchanted.

Bracers and boots.

Escape trinket.

Conquest gear will follow the same pattern of acquisition. The Elite Conquest Gear, if it becomes available, will likely be a simple color change, as it was in previous seasons.

Professions for the Frost Mage

Professions bonuses in Warlords are gone. All of them. There is no more reason for mages to take Blacksmithing. Use the professions for items or making gold.

Engineering has lots of interesting toys, some of which have situational use

Frost PvP Tips

Invisibility & Greater Invisbility (talent) – cast this before the gates open or, if in BGs, when you can break line of sight. It’s very important in the current game to get the first shatter, as it can drop someone to 30-40% with it’s ridiculous burst damage. Remember to use the on-use effect Trinket before your first shatter combo.

Mirror Image (talent) – Say if you’re going for an enemy healer and you use Ring of Frost + Mirror Images, it’s going to be very hard for him to escape all the slows/snares and whatnot, I also like the fact that Mirror Images + RoF equals a mess on the enemy screen and it can confuse the enemy, even the advanced players.

The extra slow from the Mirror Images can also act as dispel protection for Ring of Frost.

Frost Macros and Keybinding

Are you clicking your abilities instead of setting them to keybinds? You’re gimping yourself. Here’s a nice tutorial that will show you the why and how of keybinding.

Macros

Add /petattck to any damage macro and you won’t have to worry about whether your pet is attacking your target. For example:

showtooltip Frostbolt

/cast Frostbolt

/petattack

In Arenas your targeting macros are crucial, as are your focus macros. You will no longer have to click through an army of pets to get your target(s.) Note that there are no spaces in ‘arena1.’ You can also use higher numbers if you’re doing 3s or 5s. ‘arena4′ for example.

See our macro post if you need help getting started. Check out Impulse if you want some more heavy duty macro and keybind assistance. For example:

/target arena1

/cast whatever

Sets your focus to arena target 1:

/target arena1

/focus arena1

Or just as an interrupt (or sheep or…)

/cast [target=arena1] stormbolt

Heal your water elemental:

/cast [target=Water Elemental] Frostbolt

This one removes the curse from your mouseover target, otherwise it removes it from you.

How to Burst as a Frost Mage

Skill-capped also has a bunch of Frost Mage PvP videos (PvP is all they do) as well as forums and such.Check ‘em out, here.

Fast and Frostie Mage Leveling Guide

Tired of the grind? Want to level up yet another alt quickly? Brand new to the World of Warcraft game or decked head to toe in heirloom gear and want to be “up there?” Then get leveled the easy way.

With thousands of quests and a few bazillion mobs to mash the trip to the level cap can take a while. A long while. Warlords of Draenor has a level 100 cap. You can boost to 90, at $60 a pop, but you still have to hit those last ten levels. Or save a lot of money, go 1-100, and get the appropriate gold, rep, etc.

Do what the fastest levelers do and grab Dugi’s Guide, an in-game leveling guide that almost “automates” the whole leveling path for your Frost Mage.You still have to play the game, of course, but the “where to go and what to do” part is nicely taken care of. And there’s a LOT of where to go and what to do with 100 levels.

You’ll follow the most effective leveling path all the way and skip the junk quests. You probably won’t ever have to open you quest log, much less consult some website for quest info.

Dugi’s is always updated for the latest patches and expansions, including Warlords of Draenor, and is never out of date. Grab your copy here and cruise to max level quickly and easily.

19 Responses to “Frost Mage PvP Guide, Stay Frosty”

But why recommend Impulse? Imho that addon is definately not worth it’s money… It maps actionbar 1 to your numbers, actionbar 2 to shift-numbers, actionbar 3 to ctrl-numbers. Or it uses 1-5 then everything on the right of your hand. It does not map spells etc for your class specificly. It has a few useful macro’s, yes…

The youtube video on keybindings was way more useful.
I only bought Impulse because the rest of this article was so great. I figured it would be comparable…
But unfortunatly i probably sponsored the wrong ppl

Why impulse? Because it’s useful for those who want the easy way to get a pretty decent set of keybinds and macros. (And thanks for buying it, since I do need to pay the bills. There is a return policy if you’re unhappy with it.) It could be better, but it’s a good start. It’d be perfect for some people I know.

As for me, I’m actually more along your line and use my own binds (such as ESDF for movement.) Boy, I hope Warlords of Draenor doesn’t make me make more of the things.

Well, if this is your app then the money is well spent and I didn’t sponsor the wrong people afterall

So why not implementa ESDF scheme perhaps? There is more then one scheme already, it shouldn’t be that difficult And a way to save your current spells would be awesome, i guess that’s why i was disappointed. I wanted my old ones back but i had to remap manualy. And I also like the way to control the modifiers with your mouse as suggested in the video too, it gives you an edge

Wanted to drop a shout out of appreciation myself. I just got my mage to 90, haven’t played this class as a main for pvp since early cata, and your note’s are especially helpful into getting back into the pwning swing of things. Thanks again, and well done.

First of all, thank you for such an incredibly helpful site! I’m sure you’re super-busy, but when you get a chance, could you please post a text description of a good frost mage PVP rotation (like the one you have for fire-spec)? If you already have and I’m just missing it, you have my apologies. Thanks again!

Just to Drop you a note I have spent most of my night going through your Mage PVP pages. I am currently reading On the Frost Mage PVP spec and noticed that you have the Prime glyphs for an Arcan build rather than a Frost build. So I figured I had better drop you a note b4 some noob reads it and put in the arcane Primes…

On another note I have to say that so far i have not found a site for mages that is as informative as your. I thank you for having it here for old farts like me to use as a reference.

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